The TemukA Leader TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1889. THE MINISTER OF LANDS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1885, 30 April 1889, Page 2

The TemukA Leader TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1889. THE MINISTER OF LANDS.

The Hon. Mr Richardson, Minister of Lands, addressed his constituents last week, and made the most miserable speech that a member of Parliament ever made. He treated only of three subjects—viz., the land question, gold-mining, and the unemployed—and on these he gave very little information, With regard to the land, he was very boastful of hia success as an administrator, He said: “ The lands taken up under all systems for settlement in the present year, excluding only pastoral lands and small grazing runs, totalled 354,000 acres; the average amount taken up for the four preceding years was 188,000 only. This year there tad been 2800 new selectors; the average was 155 acres each, so there could he no talk of land monopoly. Owing no doubt to changes in the land law the perpetual lease system was now the favorite, and of all areas disposed of three-fifths were taken up under perpetual lease last year. One fifth was taken up for cash; the balance under other systems.” There are several reasons why so much land has been disposed of, but the main one is that the times have greatly improved, and that a land mania has set in. It is owing to this, and not to any energy displayed by the Government, that the increased area of land has been taken up. But we should not quarrel with Mr Richardson on this point if he had behaved with ordinary modesty on other points. He claims credit for the fact that the perpetual leasing tenure is now the favorite, after having done his best to destroy it. Nothing could go beyond this. ( Mr Eichardson took up the portfolio of Minister of Lands with a fixed determination to sell as much land as possible. He was not satisfied with selling undisposed-of Crown land; he aimed at selling the lands held under a perpetual lease, and, with this object in view, he provided in the Act that anyone desirous of doing so could turn his lease into a freehold by paying for it. Mr Richardson’s leading idea was to replenish the land fund at any cost, but it would not replenish for him. It is, we learn, £II,OOO to the bad, and it is likely to get worse, because the people are not disposed to buy the land; they prefer the lease system, as shown by the fact that three out of every five took up land on that tenure last year. Now one would think that after all he has done to destroy it Mr Richardson would be ashamed to claim credit for perpetual leasing. The fact is, that up to Mr Richardson’s term of office perpetual leasing was only on its trial; it was so far merely experimental. It proved a success, and hence its popularity. Passing over his reference to the goldfields, we find him treating the question of the unemployed with the greatest levity. He said: “In Dunedin the other day there had been handed to him a long list of unemployed, and Government were asked to provide work for them. In future they would not find employ- , ment for single hands, but for ablebodied married men they would do something. That class of laborers would only be found employment in remote parts. No one in Otago would get work excepting in reading in Gatlin’s Bush.” He went on to say that this was the way to test whether the men were willing to work or not, and that he would venture to think very few would accept the work. Now, if only married men will get the work, what will single men do ? Are they to starve ? Mr Richardson does not answer this, but he said : “He did hope to see day when our young men would be more imbued with the notion of going into the country and fighting the battle of settlement, instead of drifting into the towns and too frequently living from hand to mouth, in bad health, and without much of this world’s substance.” That is it, but where is the country to go to. Out in the country, fighting with settlement, there are numbers of unemployed, and the single men of Dunedin could only increase the distress by going amongst them. Mr Ballance had a different way of treating them. He did settle them out in the country, and such as he settled have not drifted to the towns since. Let Mr Richardson do likewise; he will have some grounds for talking if they then refuse. At present he has shut the gate against them by abolishing the village settlement system, and it is really cruel for him to taunt them now with drifting into towns.